To document my readings and to share quotes/insights from those readings. Enjoy :D

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Story of the Door. Mr Utterson was a very serious lawyer who rarely smiled. He forgave others who drank a great deal. He was a capable man who had good natured friendships. One of which was with Mr Richard Enfield. They had many things in common. They came upon a derelict shop-house without windows and discoloured walls. The door was stained badly. Mr Enfield admitted the door brought back some memories. He saw a man trample over a girl when they collided with one another some time ago. The man was like a Juggernaut. The girl’s family came to the girl’s rescue. The doctor was present as well. Everyone there seemed to hate the doctor. The man entered the door and extracted some money. The cheque provided was genuine. Apart from that incident, no one has been seen entering or exiting the house. Utterson wanted to know who walked over the child. Mr Hyde was the one. He had a deformity somewhere which made me very displeasing to the eye. It was Mr Hyde who entered the house to withdraw the money to pay the child’s family. Mr Hyde used a key to enter the house. Utterson and Richard vowed not to talk of this case again.

Search for Mr. Hyde. Mr Utterson was at home on a Sunday evening for dinner. That night, he examined Dr Jekyll’s will, which he kept in his business room. He was in charge of lending assistance to making the will. If anything happened to Dr Jekyll, the money would be transferred to Edward Hyde. This document offended Mr Utterson. Mr Utterson went to seek his friend Dr Lanyon. They thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll used to be friends until Dr Jekyll’s mind went wrong. They couldn’t agree on Science. Lanyon had never heard of Hyde. Utterson wanted to find out more and was not satisfied by what he knew. He wanted to see Hyde face-to-face. Since then, Utterson kept spying at the door to see whether there was any movement in or out. One night, Utterson spotted a small man entering the door via a key. Mr Utterson stopped him before he entering and started chatting with him. He was indeed Mr Hyde. Utterson managed to see his face and obtained Hyde’s address. Hyde seemed dwarfish and Utterson could not explain why he was hated so much. Now, Utterson went to Jekyll’s house. Unfortunately, Jekyll wasn’t at home. Mr Hyde often frequent the laboratory. Something must have spurred Dr Jekyll to want to work on Hyde. There were numerous strange clauses to the Will.

Dr Jekyll was Quite at Ease. Jekyll and Utterson finally met face-to-face. Jekyll termed Lanton a ‘blatant pedant’. Utterson has never approved of the Will. Jekyll was indeed a very handsome man. Jekyll admitted that he took a great interest in Hyde. Jekyll wanted Utterson to approve his Will. Utterson agreed to it.

It can make no change. You do not understand my position. I am painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange – a very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking. – Dr Jekyll

The Carew Murder Case. A year later, London was shocked by a murder of an old gentleman by Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde kept clubbing a man whom he was talking peacefully just moments ago. The maid witnessed all this and called the police. The murder was indeed very gruesome. On the victim, there was a purse and gold watch and also a sealed envelope addressed to Mr Utterson. Sir Danvers Carew was the victim. Mr Hyde was not at home when Utterson and the police officer wanted to visit. The police inspector wanted to inspect his rooms. The decoration in the rooms were very posh and luxurious in nature. The room was very messy and appeared to be ransacked recently. It seemed like Hyde killed the man for his money. Hyde was a fugitive now.

Incident of the Letter. Utterson now visited the laboratory of Jekyll’s. Mr Jekyll knew about the murder case and didn’t want to talk to Hyde again. But he knew that Hyde was safe in hiding. Jekyll gave Utterson a letter which was sealed. The letter was written by Hyde. In the letter, Hyde assured Jekyll that he had a safe means of escaping. There was a risk that Hyde would murder Jekyll some day and stand to inherit everything. Jekyll was solemn and sad in appearance now. Mr Guest was the head clerk. The writing on the letter did seem odd and Utterson questioned the clerk about it. The handwriting on the first letter and the invitation to dinner letter had an uncanny resemblance. A thought came to Utterson’s mind ‘Henry Jekyll forged for a murderer!’

I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde; I am quite done with him. I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed. – Jekyll

Incident of Dr Lanyon. The death was now resented as a public injury. Mr Hyde was now in hiding. Many people started uncovering his horrible past. Dr Jekyll was a nice man now and started mixing more with his friends. Lanyon aged visibly over a short period of time and it was starling. Lanyon declared himself a doomed man. Jekyll was ill too. Jekyll also didn’t want to see Utterson now. Jekyll wrote to Utterson and requested him to respect the silence and the fact that he didn’t want to meet Lanyon. Dr Lanyon died a fortnight later. Utterson unveiled a letter than Lanyon sent him. However after the first envelope, in it lay another, which read that the envelope shall not be opened till Jekyll’s disappearance or death.

Incident at the Window. Utterson and Enfield were talking now. The door was actually a back way to Jekyll’s house. Suddenly, Utterson managed to catch Jekyll. He was very sad indeed. He looked in horror and despair. Both men were pale after this encounter.

The Last Night. There was something wrong with Jekyll. Poole was his servant and he admitted that Jekyll liked to hide in the cabinet and do nothing. Poole suspected some foul play. He brought Utterson to the middle of the pavement. He entered a door. They entered a hall which was brightly lit. Poole brought him to the surgical theatre. The voice in the door said he cannot see anyone at the present moment. Jekyll’s voice seemed changed. The butler thought it was strange that he didn’t know who was in the cabinet. There was something in the cabinet. Dr Jekyll kept rejecting impure chemicals for his research. They examined a letter with the doctor’s handwriting. Dr Jekyll had a mask over his face and was crying like a rat. The master hiding in the cabinet did not seem to be Jekyll. The plan was to break into the cabinet to find out who it was. Could the creature be Hyde instead? Now, they suspected that Dr Jekyll had been murdered. Once, the butler heard the creature weeping. It was indeed Hyde’s voice. Poole swung the axe against the cabinet. Finally, the lock burst. There was a good fire in the cabinet that was still on-going. There was a body of a man who was contorted and twitching. It was Edward Hyde. There was a crushed phial in his hand. Hyde was in ruins. It was now time to find Jekyll’s body. The two men searched the rest of the house. Hyde was almost dead now. The lawyer unsealed the envelope found in the business table. In the will, in place of Edward Hyde, the lawyer’s name was to be beneficiary instead. The letter was written by Jekyll and it instructed Utterson to read the narrative that Lanyon wrote. Jekyll was in hiding now. Utterson would call for the police shortly. Now, Utterson had two narratives, one by Lanyon and the other by Jekyll.

Dr Lanyon’s Narrative. Jekyll did write to Lanyon previously on 9 Jan. He instructed Lanyon to extract some chemicals and a paper book to Cavendish Square. The next task would be to pass it to someone else in the cabinet. This would be all. The two above steps was necessary to save Jekyll from more harm. Lanyon felt obliged to follow the instructions. I (Lanyon) took a revolver with me in case I needed to defend myself. I found Hyde. Hyde was dressed in clothing that was way too big for him. Hyde was expecting the chemicals from me. Hyde lunged at the chemicals. He started mixing the chemicals and it gave off a bright glow. Later, he drank it. After drinking, Hyde behaved hysterically again. After he drank it, he looked like Henry Jekyll. I was completely shaken in disbelief.

Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case. I was born from a rich family and had a bright future. I reflected hard on life. I suffered from a split personality. It came to my realization, from my research, that man was two. In the past, I only advanced on the moral side, and not the intellectual side. Now, I see the duality of man. I always wanted to separate the two elements. I could create a creature that were the stamp of lower elements in my soul. It was to be a very risky experiment and I was very wary of it. One day, I needed to make the potion and drank it. Then I felt younger and lighter and happier in being. But I realized that the experiment caused me to be much shorter and uglier. I was now Edward Hyde. It all seemed so real. Edward Hyde was pure evil. Later on, I drank the potion again and was converted back to Dr Jekyll. I now had two characters as well as two appearances. I wrote the will to make it seem that there were two different people being present. I could simply commit crimes and then drink the potion and transform to Jekyll again. However, I could not clean my conscience for the crimes that Hyde committed. Later on, the experiment went awry and I was deeply frightened. I went to bed as Henry Jekyll but woke up as Edward Hyde. I needed to hide my appearance from my servants. I gradually found it harder to return to the appearance of Jekyll but it was easier to remain as Hyde. Evil was creeping inside of me. Later on, I resolved to take the form of Jekyll and tried to make good all the crime I committed. However, the evil was too overpowering and I succumbed to it. I ended up taking the form of Edward Hyde without consuming the chemicals when I was outside the home. Now, I needed to reach for my chemicals in the lab without getting caught. I thought of using Lanyon. The good thing about taking my other form was that I could still write like Jekyll. I concluded that it was impure chemicals that caused the experiment to be so unstable. I sought for pure chemicals. In half an hour, I would turn into Hyde again and this time it would be permanent. Now, I bring the life of unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.

If each, I told myself, could be housed in separate identities, life would be relived of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil. – Dr Jekyll